New Route Announces FOR COLORED GIRLS in November

New Route Theatre has announced the fourth show of their 2012-13 season. It's the Ntozake Shange classic for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, described as "an affecting and poetic play that explores what it means to be an African-American woman." Look for performances of for colored girls from November 2 to 11, with Friday and Saturday curtains at 7:30 pm and the Sunday matinee at 3 pm.

Shange's "choreopoem," focusing on seven women who "reveal themselves, their lives, loves, hardships, and ultimately their discovery of strength and love" was first performed in a bar outside Berkeley, California, but quickly moved to New York, with Off-Broadway and Broadway productions in 1976. After that, it was a book, a TV movie (with Alfre Woodard, someone I just talked about yesterday) and a film called simply For Colored Girls, directed by Tyler Perry and released in 2010.

For New Route, artistic director Don Shandrow and Phil Shaw will co-direct, while Lyndetta Alsberry choreographs this movement-centric show. The seven faces of African-American womanhood will be portrayed by Leola Bellamy, Jennifer Cirillo, Melissa James-Shrader, Gabrielle Lott-Rogers, Jennifer Rusk, Claron Sharrieff and Christie Vallela.

All performances will be held in the New Route Theatre tucked inside the YWCA of McLean County located on Hershey Road just north of Empire Street in Bloomington. You may reserve seats by sending an email to new.route.theatre@gmail.com. Please note that for colored girls replaces Sunset Limited on New Route's season schedule and will be considered part of the season pass for subscribers.

For more information, visit the Facebook page for this event here.

MYTHBUSTERS Busting Titanic's Jack and Rose... Again!

You still have time to tune in or set the DVR! Mythbusters is revisiting one of its most popular myths tonight, as James Cameron, the director of Titanic himself, joins the Mythbusters team in their pursuit of the truth. Last time, when they looked at whether there really should've been room on that plank for both Rose and Jack, they busted Titanic for choosing drama over reality. In other words, they decided there was no good reason for Jack to die in those icy waters, because he should've fit nicely right there next to Rose on the available piece of flotsam.

Or that's the conclusion Mythbusters Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage came to the first time they experimented with the size of the board and the size and shape of the lovers from Titanic, played by Kate Winslet and Leonard DiCaprio. Will they repeat their experiment and come to the same conclusion? Or will Cameron's presences (and inside info) make it come out differently this time?

I have to be honest, I wondered about the experiment the last time, since it didn't seem to matter whether the flat plane of the board was big enough for two bodies. I wanted to know whether two people would be too heavy for the wooden plank, not too broad.

I'm happy to say that Mythbusters has heard the complaints of kvetchers like me, and that's part of what Cameron, Hyneman and Savage will be looking at this time. Entertainment Weekly reports that they will consider two questions: Was the oak plank sufficient to sustain the combined weight of Rose and Jack? And would they have died of hypothermia whether they were on top of the board or not? EW has an exclusive clip from the show at the link, showing the parameters of the hypothermia question, which involves dummies, tanks of freezing water, gelatin flesh, a copper cardiovascular system, and a whole lot of ice cubes.

The Discovery Channel site also has video explaining cube roots, how to scale down Rose and Jack and their handy board, and whether they have a shot at floating. Not looking good for Jack's survival, I'll tell you that. But that's not the whole story...

So set the DVR now! Mythbusters and their Titanic iceplay appear on the Discovery Channel at 7 pm Central Time.

Queen Latifah Leads STEEL MAGNOLIAS Tonight on Lifetime

Steel Magnolias is not just a 1989 movie starring Sally Field, Dolly Parton and Julia Roberts, not just the Lifetime movie that airs tonight at 8 pm Central Time, starring Queen Latifah, Alfre Woodard and Phylicia Rashad. It's also a play. A very popular play, by a man named Robert Harling, who, as far as I know, has only written the one play, although he's done several screenplays, like Soapdish and The First Wives Club.

But it's Steel Magnolias that is Harling's calling card. The play is set entirely in a Louisiana beauty shop, a place where a bunch of ladies hang out all the time, shooting the breeze over shampoo and perms as well as life and love and friendship. The small-town setting and all-female cast makes it perfect for a whole lot of small-town and medium-town theatres, the kinds of places where they recognize these women and their beauty salon. So, no, Steel Magnolias doesn't get staged at the Goodmans and the Guthries and the Mark Taper Forums of the world, but in places like Bloomington, Monticello and Champaign instead.

It's not my favorite play, I have to admit, although it's always fun seeing how they manage enough plumbing to make a working hair salon on stage. But the situations are a little too sentimental for me, and the dialogue... Suffice it to say I'm not really into "I'd rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special," offered as a rule to live (or, actually, die) by. I'll just quote a more acerbic character in a different play and say, "Well, that's a stupid thing to do."

Still, Steel Magnolias has its fans, and the Lifetime movie has a talented cast who may just be able to pull the material out of its soggy moorings and give it some life. Queen Latifah is billed as the star, as you can see in the poster image at the top, and she's playing M'Lynn, the mom character Sally Field took on in the 1989 version. I can't imagine Queen Latifah going the trembling-chin, misty-eyed martyr route. Let's hope she gives M'Lynn some fire.

Alfre Woodard is always magic, and she's taking on Ouiser, the cranky one in the bunch who has all the best material, played by Shirley MacLaine in 89. Dolly Parton, another one who manages to make magic with inferior material, was Truvy, who runs the beauty salon, in the big-screen adaptation; that role is now played by singer-songwriter Jill Scott. Lifetime's cast also includes real mother and daughter Phylicia and Condola Rashad, even though they're not playing mother and daughter here. Instead, Phylicia is cheery Clairee, Ouiser's nemesis, and Condola is Shelby, M'Lynn's daughter, the self-sacrificing lamb who gets that terrible "thirty minutes of wonderful" line. Julia Roberts got an Oscar nomination for playing Shelby, and Condola may score an Emmy nod if she plays her cards right. The cast is rounded out by Adepero Oduye as clueless Annelle, taken under Truvy's wing to get her life straightened out.

So there you have it. If Steel Magnolias is your thing, you'll definitely want to try the one on Lifetime tonight at 8. Given the cast (seriously, Alfre Woodard is as good as it gets), it looks to be the best of all possible Steel Magnolias. You can see photos and video, including a preview, on Lifetime's site for the movie.

A SHAYNA MAIDEL Soars at IWU

Barbara Lebow's A Shayna Maidel is a perfect example of how to explore an issue, something really weighty and important, through theatre. As she builds her drama around a family split by the Holocaust, Lebow keeps the focus on her characters, on how these specific people have been divided and damaged and changed forever. That effort makes the issues -- family, faith, loss -- achingly real and heartbreakingly human.

A Shayna Maidel centers on sisters Rose and Lusia, one brought up in America and one left behind in war-torn Poland, reunited for the first time since Rose was four. What should be a miracle, what is a miracle, doesn't come easily, as Rose and Lusia struggle to find common ground, to remember and to forget, and to figure out what family means there's nothing familiar there.

This is not an easy show for college-age actors, since it requires a great deal of maturity, especially from the actors playing Lusia, so fragile and so fierce, and her father Mordecai, who bears his own scars. Nancy B. Loitz, who directs A Shayna Maidel for Illinois Wesleyan University's School of Theatre Arts, draws excellent performances from Amy Stockhaus, who finds the emotional truth in Lusia, and Ian Scarlato, the rare 20-something who can credibly play a 70-year-old. I don't know how Scarlato manages it, honestly. But Mordecai's prickly pride, terrible regrets and inability to bend are clearly etched in Scarlato's performance.

Annie Simpson is very pretty, a "shayna maidel," indeed, as Rose, while Sarah Menke is a joy as Hana, the friend Lusia left behind, Allyce Torres is a warm presence as Mama, and Ben Mulgrew does beautifully with both sides -- the sweet youth of memory and the drawn, pale face of reality -- of Duvid, another broken piece of Lusia's heart.

Scenic Designer Curtis C. Trout mounts the action on three levels of golden wood in the cozy domesticity of Rose's New York apartment. It's a beautiful set with a clever little radio that lights up (and cues some nostalgic mood music, too.)

Zachery Wagner's costumes do a nice job of evoking the 40s, with pretty frocks and robes for Rose, a solemn suit for Mordecai, and a dreary sweater and skirt for poor Lusia. Who's who and where their heads are becomes clear just from the wardrobe.

This is not a short play -- it ran about 2:40 on the night I saw it -- and it takes a while to find its rhythm, with a costume change or two that trips up the pace in the early going. Act II goes much more smoothly, however, as emotion flows more freely and secrets are unlocked, building to a moving conclusion.

A SHAYNA MAIDEL
By Barbara Lebow

McPherson Theatre
Illinois Wesleyan University School of Theatre Arts

Director: Nancy B. Loitz
Scenic Designer: Curtis C. Trout
Costume Designer: Zachery Wagner
Lighting Designer: Stephen Sakowski
Sound Designer: Toby Jaguar Algya

Cast: Annie Simpson, Ian Scarlato, Amy Stockhaus, Sarah Menke, Allyce Torres and Ben Mulgrew

Remaining Performances: October 5 and 6 at 8 pm and October 7 at 2 pm.

Running Time: 2:40, including one 10-minute intermission

For ticket information, contact the box office at 309-556-3232 or visit www.iwu.edu/theatre.

Who's at the Discovery Walk, Part II: Kirk, Smith, Sutliffe andWickart

It's been a week and a bit since we looked at four of the actors in this year's Discovery Walk at Evergreen Cemetery. I have been remiss in filling in the blanks, but there's still time to fill you in on the remaining four actors before the Walk starts up again on Saturday for four more rounds of performances.

The Discovery Walk is, of course, the annual celebration of Bloomington's past put together by Illinois Voices Theatre, the McLean County Museum of History, and Evergreen Cemetery. Judy Brown, who directs the actors who present real people who lived and worked and made an impact in our town, has chosen some veterans, like Rhys Lovell and Gwen de Veer, and some newcomers, like
Leola Bellamy and John Bowen, as we discussed last time.

The last four actors are that same mix, with two returnees in Kathleen Kirk and Kevin Wickart, and two actors trying out the Discovery Walk experience for the first time in Marcus Smith and Cathy Sutliff.

Kirk has, of course, performed as part of this event many times. She's a well-known local actress and poet with plenty of appearances on local stages. This year, she's portraying Georgina Trotter, a tireless advocate for education and the public library in Bloomington. In the Museum's biographical material linked under Trotter's name, they note that "The Pantagraph called her 'one of the most remarkable women Bloomington has ever claimed as a citizen.'" Kirk will also be playing Georgina Trotter in the dinner-and-drama salute to educators called "Spirit of Educators Past" coming later in October.

Marcus Smith and Cathy Sutliff co-starred in Heartland Theatre's Superior Donuts last spring, and they're both making their Discovery Walk acting debuts this year. Smith is playing Ike Sanders, a local entrepreneur who started the Workingman's Club, a popular restaurant that served miners and railroad workers in downtown Bloomington. Sanders was the first African-American to own and operate a restaurant (he actually had three of them over the years) in town.

Sutliff is the current president of the Area Arts Roundtable and former president of the board at Community Players. A 25-year resident of Bloomington-Normal, she is also an experienced costumer, and has acted as costumer for the Discovery Walk before. Her role is Charlotte Ann Perry Scott, the wife of Judge John M. Scott, a character whose script I wrote for the Discovery Walk in 2002.

Rounding out the cast is Kevin Wickart, who's been seen recently at Heartland in Mauritius, at Eastlight in Les Miz, and in Prairie Fire's Damn Yankees. Last year, he played John Roeder, the wild-eyed soldier who served with the Union Army hunting down "bushwhackers" in Missouri, and this year, he's taking a very different turn with Benjamin "Trott" Funk, the seventh of ten children born to Isaac and Cassandra Funk, founders of Funks Grove. Trott was a respected politician who served five terms as mayor of Bloomington, making welcome improvements to city sewers and streets and the water supply.

Tours begin at 11 am and 2 pm on Saturday and Sunday, and tickets are available at the McLean County Museum of History, the Garlic Press, Casey's Garden Shop and Evergreen Cemetery. For more information on the characters in Discovery Walk 2012, click here. For ticket information and general details, click here.

ANON(YMOUS) Stirs the Melting Pot in ISU's CPA

Naomi Iizuka's writing is beautiful. As she uses poetic language and striking images to convey big ideas, she also captures something very human in her work. That's clear in Anon(ymous), now playing in Illinois State University's Center for the Performing Arts in a production directed by MFA directorial candidate Richard Corley.

The human element is provided not only by Iizuka's main character, the boy called Anonymous, here portrayed with heart and weary vulnerability by Owais Ahmed, but in the other voices and faces who step forward to remind us that America's melting pot is composed of individuals, of people who remember beautiful and wonderful things about their homelands, people who lose their souls if they melt into nameless, faceless, interchangeable parts of the American landscape.

The words and the images of this ISU production underline that message, that it's just fine to celebrate what makes you different as well as what makes you the same, and Corley's actors, especially Ahmed as Anon, and Caitlin Boho, Gabriela Fernandez, Martin Hanna, Kent Nusbaum, Omar Shammaa and Taylor Wisham in the ensemble, embrace the material with warmth and commitment to individual characters.

The CPA is a large space for a show like this, but John Stark's set design, with towering panels of sheet metal, provides good atmosphere and tension. There are some striking images here, especially when staging, performances, and scenic and lighting effects all come together, as in the sweatshop scenes with the women in the background moving like automatons, clothing strung over their heads, and when Anon and his friend Pascal take a train ride into the night. The way Corley has staged the end, when Anon finds his version of home, also creates a nice moment.

Mark Spain's costumes and some complicated pieces, like a giant metal bird and a huge butterfly, contribute to the experience, as does Mark Maruschak's atmospheric lighting design.

If I have a complaint, it's that the pace was a bit sluggish on opening night. I clocked Anon(ymous) at 1:15 when I saw it last; this time it was 1:40. Faster playing time and cue pick-ups would've kept the drama clicking along and better involved us in Anon's odyssey across America.

ANON(YMOUS)
By Naomi Iizuka

Illinois State University
Center for the Performing Arts

Director: Richard Corley
Scenic Designer: John C. Stark
Costume Designer: Mark Spain
Hair and Makeup Designer: Kristen Kucek
Lighting Designer: Mark Maruschak
Voice and Dialect Directors: Connie de Veer and Heidi Harris
Fight Director: Paul Dennhardt
Stage Manager: Nicole Pressner

Cast: Owais Ahmed, Caitlin Boho, Chloe Ewer, Gabriela Fernandez, Martin Hanna, Anthony Leyva, Kent Nusbaum, Omar Shammaa, Hisako Sugeta, Jaimie Taylor, Erica Trumpet, Taylor Wisham.

Remaining Performances: October 3, 4, 5 and 6 at at 7:30 pm

Running time: 1:40, played without intermission

For ticket information, click here.

All About October on Area Stages

Yes, it really is October. No fighting it. It's here.

But that means even more theatre options, as more fall seasons begin and productions open up all over. Including tomorrow night!

Illinois Wesleyan is the one with the Tuesday opening night, for Barbara Lebow's A Shayna Maidel, a heartfelt drama about the effects of separation and trauma on family. Rose Weiss has carved out a nice life for herself in America, a life that begins to unravel when Lusia, the sister who got left behind in Poland and swept away to a Nazi death camp, arrives in New York. A Shayna Maidel reunites the sisters, raising issues of what it means to be related, if it's possible to repair a schism that deep, and whether blood really does run deeper than water. Nancy B. Loitz directs IWU's A Shayna Maidel, with performances from October 2-6 at McPherson Theatre. Click here for ticket information.

Naomi Iizuka's Anony(mous) began performances last week at Illinois State University's Center for the Performing Arts, with a visually striking production directed by Richard Corley. The story of one boy's journey across America, looking to survive long enough to find some sense of home and family, continues through October 6, with 7:30 pm performances on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Iizuka's writing is beautiful and profound, and Anon(ymous) is definitely worth a look.

Opening October 4 at Community Players, Leaving Iowa by Tim Clue and Spike Manton may prove a sweet and funny choice for Baby Boomers. It's about a road trip taken by a guy named Don who needs to find a suitable place for Dad's ashes. The trip brings up memories of family vacations by car in the past, with a little nostalgia and a few tears around the curves.

Sally Parry directs Leaving Iowa for CP, with Gary Strunk as Don, Bob McLaughlin as Dad, Nancy Nickerson as Mom, and Blair Wright as Sis. It will be here for only four performances, closing with a 2:30 pm matinee on Sunday the 7th. Click here for more information or to start the ticket-buying process.

Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive shows the opposite side of families and cars. This compelling memory piece, which revolves around the damage inflicted by family dysfunction and sexual abuse, opens on the 4th at Urbana's Station Theatre. The play won a Pulitzer Prize for Vogel in 1998, with the original production taking home a slew of Obies and Drama Desk Awards. That production was directed by Mark Brokaw, who himself has ties to the Station Theatre. How I Learned to Drive plays at the Station from October 4 to October 20, with all performances at 8 pm.

ISU's second show of the year begins on that very popular 4th, as well. It's Rebecca Gilman's disturbing play, The Glory of Living, which looks at a young woman who has admittedly committed horrible crimes, including abetting rape and killing in cold blood. How can blame -- through the judicial system or otherwise -- be assigned for these heinous crimes? Did she ever have a chance? Was her life destined to be a horror show before it had even begun? Matthew Campbell directs The Glory of Living inside the intimate space at Centennial West 207, with performances from October 4 to 13.

And in case you thought there couldn't possible be any more shows opening on October 4... Au contraire! U of I's Department of Theatre is offering 44 Plays for 44 Presidents, a political "phantasmagoria of presidential impressions" that includes all 44 U.S. Presidents, from George Washington to Barack Obama.The Krannert Center website indicates that at least 44 colleges and universities are performing this play that comes from Chicago's Neo-Futurist troupe in conjunction with the 2012 presidential election.

Continuing this weekend is the annual Discovery Walk at Evergreen Cemetery, with costumed actors portraying historical figures from the community. The weather was absolutely gorgeous for this outdoor event last Saturday and Sunday, with record turnout both days. Expect crowds again this weekend if the weather holds. Tickets are on sale at the McLean County Museum of History, the Garlic Press, Casey's Garden Shop, and at Evergreen Memorial Cemetery itself.

Eureka College Theatre steps up to the plate with The Man Who Came to Dinner, the classic Kaufman and Hart comedy, playing October 9-14. I seem to recall Holly Rocke acting in ISU's production back a few years, which should give her an inside track on directing this new production in Eureka.

Can you spell ADORABLE? I love The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a musical with audience participation about kids striving to spell. Spelling Bee is the Champaign-Urbana Theatre Company's first fall production. Since the CUTC doesn't have a space of its own, the show will be performed at Parkland College Theatre, with performances at 7:30 pm October 11 through 13 and at 2:30 pm on October 14.

Meryl Streep as Mother Courage in 2006

Bertolt Brecht's bold anti-war play, Mother Courage and her Children, hits ISU's Westhoff Theatre on October 18, with Sandi Zielinski directing a cast that includes Abby Vombrack in the title role. Mother Courage, AKA Canteen Anna, is a survivor, that's for sure, selling wares during wartime and making a tidy profit. But what does it gain her to collect cash if she loses all her children to the same conflict that fills her coffers?

A touring production of Fiddler on the Roof comes to the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts on October 27 for one night only. Tickets range from $55 for primo seats in great locations to only $20 for kids in the back. The performance will take place at 7:30 pm with pre-show activities at 6:45. The BCPA isn't saying what particular Fiddler company this is, but it looks very much like the one that came through Peoria in 2010.

You may need to make some hard choices on the 4th, but otherwise... Lots and lots of nifty theatrical options await in October.